Friday, March 1, 2013

First, a little history…always a good way to begin thoughts like these.

One hundred and seventy-five years ago another “religious” group was
despised by howling mobs of ‘citizens’. They were hounded by the
‘citizens’ government and in the process of being driven out of the
United States of America, a part of this group of “religious nuts,” men,
women and children, were accosted by mounted state militia men who were
bent on executing the state government’s “extermination Order.” The
militiamen rounded the male members up, locked them in a chink-log grist
mill, dismounted and pushed their ‘assault rifles’ through the gaps in
the walls and fired, volley after volley. Scores were killed or wounded.

This was known as the “Han’s Mill Massacre,” the group of “religious
nuts” were called Mormons. Today’s Mormons are want not to talk about
this part of their history. Many aren’t even aware of it. It took an
additional 137 years to regain some respectability in the national
community, but, even today you can find rabid anti-Mormons spewing their
hatred of this “group of religious nuts,” these “cultists,” on the
streets surrounding the Mormon’s world headquarters on Temple Square in
Salt Lake City.

I don’t understand this kind of hate. When I witnessed the burning of
the Branch Davidian church, or “compound” as the FBI called it, on
April 19, 1993, the thought crossed my mind, are these people really
what the government claims them to be? Or, was this another Hans Mill?
I, like so many millions of other Americans that day, had no idea of who
those people were. What was certain was they were dead, all the men,
women and children save nine adults out of almost 100 souls. I spent the
next 19 years trying to find out who these people were, why and how
they died and who were the people outside the “Compound,” claiming they
wanted the Davidians to come out, but doing their damnedest to kill
them.

It’s funny, I never could find those “evil sons of bitches” that were
inside the building that day. But I did find a lot of folks that were
there that didn’t do their sworn duty and bring all of those inside out,
safely, to stand before the bar of justice. Some of those, that were
outside that day were actually cowards and ran and hid.

The portion of the population who support
abortions (53 million and counting) are also the same people who are
attacking the second amendment and want gun control legislation. As
Obama put it: if even one life can be saved, Congress should act against gun violence.

How do you reconcile genocide by abortion
on one hand with passing gun control legislation to “save lives” on
another hand? You don’t. Both have the same end result: genocide.

“You
shall bring your sons to this spot, tell them the story of his life, of
his patriotism of his loyalty to high thinking and noble living, of his
moderation in speech, his patience under defeat, of his devotion to
your City and State as a perpetual illustration and an enduring example
of the dignity, the worth of a high souled, pure hearted Christian
gentleman.” As you shall look on this statue, it shall be both a
memorial and a lesson of the value of a citizenship which will preserve
all that is good in the past, and inspire to patriotism and service in
the future.”

George
Davis was born on his father’s plantation, Porter’s Neck, in New
Hanover County on 1 March, 1820. He entered the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill at age 14 and graduated valedictorian in 1838 at
age 18. He studied law in Wilmington and was admitted to the Bar
Association at age 20, receiving his license to practice law the
following year. Mr. Davis married Mary Polk of Mecklenburg County in
1842 and their marriage was blessed with 4 children. He was known as a
most thorough, painstaking and laborious lawyer, and in 1848 he became
general counsel of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, a position
he held for the remainder of his life. A staunch Unionist until
Lincoln's decision to violently coerce States, the North Carolina
Legislature in early 1861 named George Davis as a delegate to the
Washington Peace Conference which attempted to avert the
coming fratricidal war.

After
three weeks and a lack of compromise between the sections, Davis
returned to Wilmington convinced that the secession of the South was
inevitable. North Carolina seceded from the United States on 20 May
1861 and Davis found himself elected to a two-year term as a North
Carolina Senator to the Provisional Confederate Congress. During his
term, Senator Davis was considered a strong supporter of the Jefferson
Davis administration and advocate for North Carolina, though tragedy
struck his home as his beloved wife Mary passed away.

President
Davis appointed him Attorney General on 31 December 1863 (succeeding
Thomas H. Watts) and he served in that Cabinet post until the end of the
War Between the States and the dissolution of the Confederate
government. The defeat of the Confederacy brought his imprisonment at
Fort Hamilton, New York until his parole in January, 1866.

Returning
to Wilmington, he married Monimia Fairfax of Richmond to whom he had
become engaged while Attorney General and from this union two children
were born. Davis resumed his law practice and became a popular and
influential citizen who successfully pressed for State constitutional
reforms in 1875. He was also the only citizen of North Carolina ever to
decline the Chief Judgeship of the State Supreme Court offered to him
by Governor Zebulon B. Vance in 1878. Davis continued to exercise great
influence in North Carolina’s political life and enjoyed the affection
and admiration of her citizens.

His
last public address was a memorial of his former chief, President
Jefferson Davis in December 1889, on which occasion he spoke without
notes in Wilmington's famous Thalian Hall Opera House. Already in feeble
health, George Davis spoke of his fallen President being a
"high-souled, true-hearted Christian gentleman, and if our poor humanity
has any higher form than that, I know not what it is." Davis ended his
last oration with:

"My
public life was long since over; my ambition went down with the banner
of the South, and, like it, never rose again. I have had abundant time
in all these quiet years, and it has been my favorite occupation to
review the occurrences of that time, and recall over the history of that
tremendous struggle; to remember with love and admiration the great men
who bore their parts in its events.

I
have often thought what was it that the Southern people had to be most
proud of in all the proud things of their record? Not the achievement
of our arms! No man is more proud of them than I, no man rejoices more
in Manassas, Chancellorsville and in Richmond; but all the nations have
had their victories. There is something, I think, better than that, and
it was this, that through all the bitterness of that time, and
throughout all the heat of that fierce contest, Jefferson Davis and
Robert E. Lee never spoke a word, never wrote a line that the whole
neutral world did not accept as the very indisputable truth. Aye, truth
was the guiding star of both of them, and that is the grand thing to
remember; upon that my memory rests more proudly than upon anything
else. It is a monument better than marble, more durable than brass.
Teach it to your children, that they may be proud to remember Jefferson
Davis."

George
Davis passed quietly from this life at the age of 76 and was laid to
rest in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery. Attesting to the depth of
feeling toward him is the bronze statue erected by the Cape Fear Chapter
Number 3, United Daughters of the Confederacy on April 20th, 1911,
located at the intersection of Market and 3rd Streets. During World War
II the Liberty ship SS George Davis, was named in his honor.

In
his "Memoirs of An Octogenarian," John D. Bellamy noted that Davis "had
no toleration for new ideas. He did not believe in popular
education---it was a heresy with him. He was a Cavalier, not a Puritan.
On one occasion he said to me:

"This
thing you boys are advocating, called progress, and the introduction of
new notions is wrong; it is but a synonym for graft and rascality."

He
despised hypocrisy and hated demagoguery. He was a great stickler for
decorum. On one occasion, seeing a young lawyer with his feet elevated
and resting on a table in the presence of the court and jury, Mr. Davis
came by and tapping the young man gently on the shoulder, said to him:
"Young man, no gentleman will put his feet on the table in the presence
of the court and jury."

When
informed of the death of George Davis, Mrs. Varina Davis (wife of the
President) wrote that George Davis was "one of the most exquisitely
proportioned of men. His mind dominated his body, but his heart drew him
near to all that was honorable and tender, as well as patriotic and
faithful, in mankind. He was never dismayed by defeat, but never
protested. When the enemy was at the gates of Richmond he was fully
sensible of our peril, but calm in the hope of repelling them, and if
this failed, certain of the power and will to endure whatever ills had
been reserved for him.

His
literary tastes were diverse and catholic, and his anxious mind found
relaxation studying the literary confidences of others in a greater
degree than I have ever known in any other public man except Mr.
Benjamin. My husband felt for him the most sincere friendship as well as
confidence and esteem, and I think there was never a shadow intervened
between them. I mourn with you over our loss, which none who knew him
can doubt was his gain."

It’s been five years since a few academics and journalists
began to dig up evidence that something was wrong with the London
Inter-Bank Offered Rate, or LIBOR (pronounced appropriately as
“lie-bore.”) The data that curious researchers were compiling couldn’t
be explained using the prevailing definition of what LIBOR supposedly
was: a trustworthy interest rate that accurately gauged the market price
of borrowed US dollars held overseas by the world’s biggest banks.Instead,
their findings pointed toward something other than an idealized
neoliberal market, influenced only by impersonal supply and demand
forces. Many began to realize that the data could easily be explained if
the banks were rigging the LIBOR rate in their favor.

Strange
discrepancies in LIBOR’s correlation to other rates, and to the economic
fundamentals of the bank companies responsible for formulating the
rate, showed something seriously amiss, but it made sense if the banks
were cheating.

The motives of the banks have been clear from the
beginning. A few banks that dominate the marketplace for derivatives
stand to make billions if LIBOR moves in their favor on particular days
when contractual payments between them and their customers come due.
They therefore suppressed the rates in order to skim billions of dollars
off derivatives and investments. Later these same banks suppressed
LIBOR rates to create the illusion that their balance sheets were robust
during the financial crisis. This also allowed them further rounds of
money-siphoning from their unwitting derivatives customers.

According to the program, the show featured three cast members — one
student acting as a speaker and two as Michelle and Barack Obama, and
students singing seven songs. As you might expect from the title of the
show, and the image below (also from the cover page), most of the songs
are a salute to civil rights heroes like Rosa Parks and Dr. Matin Luther
King, Jr. But there is also considerable adoration heaped upon
President Obama.

While the majority of the program might be considered to be an
over-the-top tribute to President Obama, the very first song, “Feels
Like Change” actually takes a shot at President Bush.

Two prominent Democratic pollsters — Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen —
are criticizing President Barack Obama as harshly as any Republican.

Obama is trying to destroy the Republican Party by dividing Americans, the two write on Politico. Caddell was President Jimmy Carter’s pollster, while Schoen served that role for President Bill Clinton.

The president’s protestations about the horror that will result from the
automatic spending cuts (sequester) that began today aren’t above
board, they write in Politico.

“The president is obviously going all-out — but not to avoid the $85
billion in spending cuts,” Caddell and Schoen say. “Obama doesn’t want
to make a deal with Republicans. His fear-mongering is part of a
concerted plan that extends far beyond the sequester crisis: to
obliterate the Republican Party as a viable force in American political
life.”

And they offer a scathing denunciation for how Obama is going about it.
“His self-righteous rhetoric obscures a bitter truth: Obama is not
trying to unite the country,” the duo writes.

“He’s waging a class-based battle for political gain. His goal is to win
back the House for Democrats in 2014, giving him a united Congress for
his last two years in office and allowing him to pursue the most
expansive government in American history.”

In seeking to discuss the rebound of the country’s housing market, Bloomberg Businessweek
became part of its own story today — through its controversial cover.
It wasn’t long before the magazine was accused of crossing the line with
a “racist” portrayal of the issue.

The cover stands out not only for its caricatures of blacks and Hispanics, Ryan Chittum asserted at CJR,
but because “there are only people of color in it, grabbing greedily
for cash.” Questioning how the art made it through the editorial
process, Chittum went on to detail the issue he took with the approach,
noting that the “narrative of the crash on the right has been the
blame-minority-borrowers line, sometimes via dog whistle, often via
bullhorn.”

Worried about the federal government imposing overly-restrictive new gun laws? One Pennsylvania county is saying, “Not in our backyard!”
Susquehanna County commissioners have passed a resolution to fully protect the Second Amendment from any federal laws infringing upon it, as reported by The Times-Tribune.
The resolution states that that “any federal act, bill, law, rule or executive order that in any way infringes on our Second Amendment rights by attempting to reduce the private ownership of any firearm, magazine or ammunition shall be unenforceable in Susquehanna County.”

Dozens of buses brought protestors from all corners of the state.
Many in the crowd raised American flags or yellow “Don’t Treat on Me” flags. A number of signs compared Cuomo to Hitler and invoked communism. Others had messages such as: “If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words” or “I’m a mom and grandmother here to protect and defend their future.”
One sign was especially pertinent: “Founded in 1816: Remington stays. Cuomo goes!”
The crowd could be heard chanting, “We will not comply!” at one point and later “Cuomo’s gotta go!”
- See more at: http://conservativevideos.com/2013/03/we-will-not-comply-nra-holds-massive-rally-in-ny/#sthash.gfdtkzdk.dpuf

The Senate is about to vote to make all of these into federal crimes,
turning gun-owning Americans into prohibited persons — meaning they
would NOT be able to own a firearm anywhere in the country!

We have talked about some of the problems with Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's gun “trafficking” bill.
Leahy apparently thinks that, if he puts a shiny label on the bill, he
can ban as many guns as he wants.

But, at its core, S. 54 would make it a federal crime to violate virtually any state gun law.

Section 5 creates a new "prohibited person" classification which makes
it a federal crime to transfer a gun if “prohibited by State or local
law ... from possessing [or] selling ... THE firearm or ammunition.”
[Emphasis added]

Note the use of the word “the.” We're not
talking about a person who's banned from owning ANY firearm. We're
talking about a person who's prohibited
by ANY state law from possessing a PARTICULAR firearm.

So do
you like Andrew Cuomo's massive gun ban? He bans more types of guns
than would Feinstein’s so-called
“assault weapons” ban. Yet under S. 54, transferring a firearm banned
by Cuomo becomes a federal crime, punishable by ten years in a federal
prison — at least for New York residents and possibly for others.

Do you like California's proposed ammunition ban? That also becomes a
federal crime — at least for California residents and perhaps for
others.

So you like gun licensure? A person who doesn't have a
license in New York and Illinois is also “prohibited by State ... law
... from possessing [or] selling ... the firearm.” This becomes a
federal crime.

Do you agree with D.C.'s efforts to ban
firearms by imposing a microstamping requirement? Transferring a
non-microstamped firearm would become a
FEDERAL crime under S. 54 — at least for D.C. residents and maybe
others.

By voting for S. 54, your senator will be making guns banned
by Andrew Cuomo’s expansive law into federally banned guns, as well. He
will be saying, “I like every word of gun control which Rahm Emanuel is
pushing.”

By the way, Senator Leahy is trying to sell S. 54 as a supposed
crackdown on gun traffickers. But there’s not one word in this bill
that would punish (or prevent) what happened in Fast & Furious,
where our government helped send thousands of illegal guns south of the
border, resulting in the murders of hundreds of Mexicans and at least
one federal agent.

Moreover, it’s currently illegal to traffic in firearms. It’s
illegal to sell a gun to a prohibited person [18 USC 922(d)]. It’s
illegal to serve as a straw man [18 USC 922(d)]. It’s illegal to sell a
bunch of guns without a license [18 USC 922(a)]. But that’s not what
S. 54 is about. The one thing S. 54 would do is to make anti-gun bans
being passed by every anti-gun state into federal crimes as well.

“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is
threefold: it’s patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we
can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
--Joseph Stalin

Maryland's gun control debate drew about 2,000 people to Annapolis Friday as the House of Delegates began considering a bill to ban assault weapons, limit magazines to 10 rounds and enact some of the nation's strictest licensing requirements.
A House hearing on Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal began shortly after noon and was expected to continue all day and into the night. The Senate passed the bill Thursday.
"All of these reforms just might save the lives of little boys and little girls, of moms and dads, of sisters and brothers," O'Malley told a joint hearing of two House committees. "We can and must do more."

The National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist in Annapolis told lawmakers the organization objects to the entire package, which it says represses gun ownership and threatens an individual's right to self defense.
"A criminal does not ask permission before attacking your family," Shannon Alford testifed. "A citizen should not have to ask permission from the state of Maryland before protecting her family."

The Fayette County, Tenn. County Commission passed its Second Amendment Enforcement Resolution on Tuesday.

The resolution condemns any violations of the Second Amendment, declares them unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. It also calls on the Sheriff to take all measures as may be necessary to prevent the enforcement of any federal acts, laws, orders, rules, or regulations in violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In addition, the county calls on the state legislature to adopt and enact any and all measures that would clarify the sheriff’s duty and responsibility to defend the citizens of the State of Tennessee against infringement by the federal government.

The resolution passed overwhelmingly by a 17-2 vote.

It was the second Tennessee County commission to pass a resolution opposing any violations of the Second Amendment in the last two weeks. The Madison County Commission passed its resolution on Feb, 19.

Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center indicate a number of other Tennessee counties will consider similar resolutions.

For more information about how your county can pass a 2nd Amendment Preservation Ordinance or Resolution, contact us at tennessee@tenthamendmentcenter.com.

It was one of the few times the sheriff has publicly
addressed the recent crimes in Henderson. Thursday's message was one of
several takeaways from Thursday's community watch association meeting
featuring neighborhood watch leaders.

"Now I'm not trying to
shift the blame, I want to make sure everybody's clear on this, but you
know -- do what you can to protect yourself," White said.

Nearly two weeks ago the town saw a double murder. Also this month, two women were carjacked and one of them raped at gunpoint.

The sheriff said authorities have a sexual assault suspect in mind and have asked the FBI to help build a profile.

"It just takes time, but I'm confident in saying that we will solve this," White said.

His words provide little assurance to several women in the meeting who wanted a specific description of the suspect.

"He
may be black, he may be white, he may be hispanic, that's what I was
expecting, however they didn't say it," said Henderson resident
Geraldine Champion.

.............the New York Supreme Court has stated that they will issue an
injunction against the new SAFE Act on April 29th—unless the state can
prove that the law is constitutional. This puts the burden of proof on
the state of New York to show the Act is legal under the newly
re-affirmed provisions of the Second Amendment, which is impossible.
From WKTV . . .

The Buffalo-based attorney who is spear-heading a lawsuit
against Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent gun laws said that Wednesday was
“monumental,” as a State Supreme Court Justice issued an order
requiring New York State to show good cause that the law is
constitutional.

New York State has until April 29 to respond or else an injunction will be issued.

Grass Roots North Carolina is giving away a brand new AR-15, generously supplied by C&E Gunshows.
It is an M4-configured carbine with OD green collapsible stock, hand
guard and pistol grip. It has a flat top with forward assist, and was
built on a DPMS receiver by Tony's Customs. It comes with a soft case
and two new 30-round magazines. Optics are not included.

A 13-month-old Hereford bull from Idaho shattered the previous cattle sale record with a price tag of $600,000 on Monday.
The bull, Miles McKee, had a high price tag due to its phenotype. The
bull’s moderate frame and heavy muscling promises to breed more cattle The Australiansays will be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
The previous cattle sale record was set in 1980 and totaled $301,000.
The bull’s former owner, Guy Colyer, runs Colyer Hereford and Angus
ranch. Colyer’s previous high sale was in 1984 when a bull carried a
$238,000 price tag.
The bull is worth $800,000, but the Colyer family will keep
one-quarter interest in the bull and has the option to use the bull’s
semen in its own herd. According to World Record Academy, Colyer will receive a portion of semen sales.
- See more at:
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Hereford-bull-sells-for-600k-sets-Guinness-world-record-193851751.html#sthash.9c1jKeoV.dpuf

A 13-month-old Hereford bull from Idaho shattered the previous cattle sale record with a price tag of $600,000 on Monday.

The bull, Miles McKee, had a high price tag due to its phenotype. The bull’s moderate frame and heavy muscling promises to breed more cattle The Australian says will be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The previous cattle sale record was set in 1980 and totaled $301,000. The bull’s former owner, Guy Colyer, runs Colyer Hereford and Angus ranch. Colyer’s previous high sale was in 1984 when a bull carried a $238,000 price tag.

The bull is worth $800,000, but the Colyer family will keep one-quarter interest in the bull and has the option to use the bull’s semen in its own herd. According to World Record Academy, Colyer will receive a portion of semen sales.

A 13-month-old Hereford bull from Idaho shattered the previous cattle sale record with a price tag of $600,000 on Monday.
The bull, Miles McKee, had a high price tag due to its phenotype. The
bull’s moderate frame and heavy muscling promises to breed more cattle The Australiansays will be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
The previous cattle sale record was set in 1980 and totaled $301,000.
The bull’s former owner, Guy Colyer, runs Colyer Hereford and Angus
ranch. Colyer’s previous high sale was in 1984 when a bull carried a
$238,000 price tag.
The bull is worth $800,000, but the Colyer family will keep
one-quarter interest in the bull and has the option to use the bull’s
semen in its own herd. According to World Record Academy, Colyer will receive a portion of semen sales.
- See more at:
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Hereford-bull-sells-for-600k-sets-Guinness-world-record-193851751.html#sthash.9c1jKeoV.dpuf

Pompeo attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating first in his class in 1986,” according to his website,
before serving “as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army, leading troops
as they patrolled the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that the
sequestration fight is revealing that some of her colleagues in Congress
are not “on Team America,” based on a comment made by Rep. Mike Pompeo,
R-Kan., that the sequester cuts are “a home run.”

“Democrats — we want solutions, Republicans want sequestration,”
Pelosi said during her press briefing today. “Some of them have even
called it a home run. That doesn’t sound like anybody on Team America if
they think sequestration’s indiscriminate, mindless cuts across the
board are a home run.”

Rep. Darrell Issa said on Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder’s
admission that he does not respect Congress — particularly those who
voted to hold him in contempt over the Operation Fast and Furious
gun-running debacle — “offers a window into why Washington is so
dysfunctional.”

“President [Barack] Obama once campaigned as someone who wanted to bring
America together, but instead appointed divisive and highly partisan
figures like Attorney General Holder who are arrogantly dismissive of
those who question them and demand transparency,” said the California
Republican, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee.

Holder told ABC News on Wednesday that he was unfazed by the vote of
most House Republicans and 17 Democrats to hold him in contempt of
Congress last June over Fast and Furious.

The
term "final protective fire" means the highest priority is given to this
request due to the danger of a position being overrun.
For the guy in the trenches, that means firing as fast as possible to
break up a determined assault - even if that uses up barrels and ammo
fast. If the FPF fails, there won't be a "later" for those troops.

How does this relate to civilian self-defense? Very directly: almost every defense against a foe with a contact weapon is an FPF event. Most short range shootings are the same.
They are rapid affairs with very little care given to the aftermath -
if you fail to stop a guy with a shank, there won't be an "after" for
you. The difference is that you seldom have another person covering you and have to rely on your own firepower to break the attack.

Remembrance

Winners: Navy Cross Nguyen Van Kiet & MOH Thomas R. Norris This week’s Medal of Honor hero is one of a handful of Navy SEALs awarded the MOH in the Vietnam War. Norris snuck behind enemy lines with a South Vietnamese Navy petty officer rescued two downed pilots in 1972–when most of our resources had been pulled from the country. Interesting to note that later year, Norris was himself rescued by another SEAL Michael E. Thornton.More @ Medal of Honor Roll Call

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
==============================
My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
=============================
My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
===========================
*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
============================
"His Colored Friends"
============================
Lee's Surrender
=============================
My Black NC Kinfolks
============================
Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.